Hi, i'm after some advice from anyone who has been through a period of complete crisis in their teens, feeling like they cannot do anything with their life, but managed to somehow get through it. My 15 year old (trans male) moved to a specialist school last October and is in a class of only 5, with the most wonderful, understanding teachers and kids. Everyone has bent over backwards to do everything right to help him, including ensuring his new name and pronoun are always used. He admits that there's nothing else he wants them to do, but he still finds attending a living hell (but then taking the day off is a living hell because he's upset with himself).
I'd happily de-register him, arrange online schooling, alternative options, anything to make him happy, but he doesn't believe there is any solution that would work. He wants to be doing a normal range of gcse's, achieve his exams, and choose his own friends - but he knows he can't even keep up with the core subjects currently, and couldn't possibly manage in a normal class size (he likes the other 4 people in his class but he doesn't have much in common with them, so friendship options are limited). Her can't attend any clubs because he finds it too exhausting and anxiety provoking, because he suffers from constant voices in his head, shouting at him about how rubbish he is. He also suffers from distressing visual hallucinations due to anxiety too. He says, even if he gets any qualifications, he couldn't cope with college or any other environment like it, or any work environment, and he hates the idea of staying at home doing online learning. So....basically he sees no future. He's tried every CBT, DBT, talking therapy etc, and is on Fluoxetine. It seems like nothing helps. I don't want to 'fix' him, I want to help him realise that he's not broken, he's an amazing, talented individual with so much potential for happiness and plenty of time to work out his own way in life. How do you get someone to start believing that, when everything about life seems impossible to them?
